A Blog Dedicated to the Study of the Gilded Age, Progressive Era, and history of the environment.

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Recent Reads

Stephen Dando-Collins, The Great Fire of Rome.

Dando-Collins sets out to break a few myths. First, Nero did not fiddle while Rome burned. In fact, the Romans were totally unfamiliar with fiddles. What is true is that Nero was away from Rome when the fire spread violently and quickly from the circus maximus (the largest wooden structure of the ancient world) through Rome. When Nero received the first report of the fire, he was not concerned. Rome had fires in the past and he felt local officials could manage without imperial interference. Upon receiving a second, more accurate, report Nero departed for the capital. Second, Nero blamed the new sect of Christians and punished them harshly. Dando-Collins believes that if the repressive scape-goating took place at all, the targets were certainly not Christians, but followers of the Egyptian cult of Isis. They were quite unpopular and, hence, an easy target in Rome. When early Christian monks copied the ancient texts by candlelight they substituted Christians for Isis worshipers. As Dando-Collins points out, Romans in the time of Nero did not know at all of Christians; they did not distinguish followers of Jesus from other Jews. Finally, Dando-Collins paints a favorable portrait of Nero. The emperor made a strong and good faith effort to rebuild Rome after the fire. Romans did not appreciate his efforts because they did not approve of his changes to the building codes and thought their emperor appropriated too much for himself and his gaudy golden palace. Dando-Collins argues that Nero re-built Rome with impressive speed and gusto. If anything, his zeal and demand for money to rebuild Rome in the form of taxation on the provinces led to revolts, including the Jewish revolt. Dando-Collins is convinced that Nero did not start the fires. Others had motives to do so. But, the people were disposed to believe their emperor was capable of such a horrific deed. Why? Nero was unpopular before the fire because he engaged in the unregal act of competitive singing, music playing, and poetry reading. When the Gauls revolted, their leader cited the emperor's artistic performances as part of his rationale for challenging the mighty Roman empire. Yes, Nero killed his mother and half brother, but killing rivals was not entirely new in the Roman style of government. Dando-Collins is even more dismissive of Nero's (unearned) reputation for cruelty and repression. Nero did no more than enforce the law. Nothing more, nothing less.

I really enjoyed The Great Fire of Rome and would recommend it to anyone interested in Roman history.

Stacey Schiff, Cleopatra: A Life.

Early Roman historians did a number on Cleopatra. She was a something of a sex-driven witch doctor capable of casting spells, commanding snakes, and poisoning the hearts of men. Schiff seeks a more accurate persona and comes away convinced that Cleopatra was a strong willed queen, capable of subtle diplomacy, familiar with the violent methods of the Ptolemy dynasty, driven to restore the greatness of her realm, and an astute judge of strategy. She understood Egypt's place regarding the growing Roman world and sought to integrate the two in a way that empowered her. One great example of this was mothering Casarian, Julius Caesar's only son. Yes, Cleopatra employed sex as part of her diplomacy. In the end Cleopatra failed. She backed Mark Anthony who performed bizarrely in his civil war against Octavian (some blaming her). Having no desire to be marched through Rome in a triumph she killed herself.

Some reviewers on Amazon commented on how the Schiff went pages without mentioning Cleopatra with the effect of losing sight of the subject. While it is true that there is a lot of background material, it should also be noted that Schiff's central argument is that Cleopatra cannot be understood without this context. She was a product of the Ptolemy dynasty with a distinct method of ruling and her ambition was to restore her kingdom to its former greatness. Regarding long forays into Roman history, she was very much involved in the civil wars. Rome was the lion at the gate and she had to do what she could to keep it at bay. Roman policy was the only really important one for Cleopatra. Egypt's wealth and grain made it impossible for her, or any other ruler, to avoid entaglement in Rome's civil wars. These two influences shaped her life and reign. Instead of feeling lost in superflous material, I felt Schiff did an excellent job of compensating for the lack of material related directly to Cleopatra by vividly creating the physical and intellectual environment she inhabited.

About Me

I earned my PhD in 2002 from Lehigh University. I am the author of The Most Defiant Devil: William Temple Hornaday & His Controversial Crusade to Save American Wildlife (University of Virginia Press, 2013) and Chester A. Arthur: The Life of a Gilded Age President and Politician (Nova, 2007).